Improvement in fabrics prepared to imitate leather



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE...

HENRY A. CLARK, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN FABRICS PREPARED TO IMITATE LEATHER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 143,122, datedSeptember 23, 1873; application filed August 23, 1873. i

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, HENRY A. CLARK, of Boston,'in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Fabrics Prepared to Imitate Leather, of which the following is a specification:

Paper or cloth, or paper and cloth combined, or other suitable sheet material, has been prepared by coating or covering one side or surface with flock of silk, wool, cotton, &o., or painted or printed, as a substitute for, or imitation of, leather, to be used as linings or coverings for leather, pasteboard, &c., and this sheet material so prepared has usually been secured to the leather or pasteboard, 850., required to be lined by means of a cement, paste, or other adhesive substance applied to the other or remaining unprepared side or surface of the sheet material; but the paste or adhesive substance, in consequence of the moisture it contained, has injured the prepared surface more orless by softening it, or by raising or blistering it.

The object of the present invention is to prepare the remaining side or surface in such manner as to obviate the above troubles. The sheet material having been prepared with flock in the usual manner of flocking, or painted or printed, or as printed with lithographic ink according to Letters Patent issued to me July 22, 1873, numbered 141,118, on

its remaining unprepared surface has applied to it one or more coats of shellac varnish, or other suitable Water-proof material, by means of a brush, or in any manner desirable, and,

after being dried, is ready for use, to be applied to the article to be covered or lined. By water-proofing, as described above, the surface or side of the sheet material that is to be secured to the article to be lined, obviously moisture from the adhesive material used, or from the atmosphere or otherwise, is prevented from inj uringits flocked, painted, or printed surface by softening it, or by raising or blistering it.

Shellac varnish is deemed the best waterproof material to use, as it also imparts a body and a good Wearing-surface to the sheet material.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patcut, is

Paper or cloth, or other suitable sheet material, which has been prepared on one side or surface with flock, paint, or print, and waterproofed on the back or remaining unprepared side or surface, substantially as herein de-' scribed, for the purpose specified.

HENRY A. CLARK.

Witnesses:

EDWIN W. BROWN, JOHN P. MOELROY. 

